Chapter 4

Basic Necessities

When one uses the term basic necessities, they are often thought of as things that are easy to obtain. Yet, that is a misconception brought about by an easy life. Lykan quickly realized this fallacy of thought as he continued his trek down the side of the mountain.

He walked through the night, though it was at first hard to determine that it was night. The lights from the active volcano lit up the sky. Fortunately, it hadn’t erupted in a violent explosion of dirt and dust. Such events would be catastrophic for an environment. Instead, the volcano had merely begun bleeding magma for lack of a better term.

Apparently, the infusion of energy happened at just the right time and amount that a full eruption was avoided. This in itself was likely a blessing of the Gods. Realizing that he once again had been blessed this day for not having to breathe in noxious fumes, he once again thanked the Gods.

Though he did wonder if part of why he had managed to survive was due to his recently acquired Skill Regeneration. The Skill itself sounded like it would be more of a Magical Ability, but given that he needed a Skill and it seemed perfectly suited for his needs, he figured questioning such a gift would be unwise.

Instead, he focused on minor things. His mind went through ways to create a basic shelter for living. Ways to purify water with fire, though such methods required glass tubes that could be protected from such heat. No, if he was to survive, he needed to trust in his Regeneration Ability to fight off diseases and infections. Who knew, but actively drinking water that would normally lead to infections, he might level it quickly and thereby unlock his second Skill. Which, of course, if the Skill could be evolved, would open up two new Skills as well.

Realizing it would be a win-win for him either way, he figured he would find a fairly clear stretch of water and drink. Then see how things went from there.

As it was, he was already a Master in Regeneration. This meant that he only had one more stage until he met the requirements for having it evolve to the Sage tier. Then from there, it could either evolve to a new, more powerful Skill which would thus unlock two additional new Skills. Or it would remain the same, and he would be left with one new Skill. Given the way his body felt at the moment, he thought the Skill was amazing as is. That said, he didn’t know what else would need to be done to have this Skill evolve. In fact, unless he missed his guess, this might actually be the evolved form of the Skill: Healthy. If that was the case, then there was nothing else he could do to evolve Regeneration. The only thing he could do was push the Skill forward through use and deeds and reap the benefits.

This led him to think about his other new Skill Spear Mastery. This Skill had to logically be an evolved version of the base Skill Spear Weapon Proficiency. To have it already at an evolved level meant that given enough time, practice, and accomplishments, this Skill too would unlock two new Skills once he maxed out his proficiency in Spear Mastery.

His mind slowly tried to piece together the information that he had at present and help him come to the most logical conclusions. Still, the rate at which his mind was able to process and comprehend concepts like already having two evolved Skills was impressive. He chalked most of this up to his increased Attributes and, in particular, his increased Intelligence Attribute.

Oddly enough, he barely focused on the fact that Power, one of the most revered Attributes, had finally been unlocked for him. Though finally was a relatively vague term, as no one without a Class had Power. Or at least no one should have the Power Attribute unlocked this early.

Even still, thanks to the now permanent blessings of the Gods, his Power Attribute well exceeded the human norms. He was somewhat sad to see that he only had a one in the Attribute, which was the base score that any Attribute had. To put it in context, babies started off with a one in all Attributes, and only through time and effort were they able to build up their Attributes.

The higher one managed to raise their Attributes, the better the starting Class they were given. This thought alone gave Lykan hope. Now that he was no longer cursed with Magic Immunity and, in fact, able to have the Power Attribute, he thought he might be able to get the Scholar Class like his father.

So many thoughts of a better future filled his head that he almost failed to notice the tell-tale signs of danger. Only due to his enhanced Awareness Attribute, which was just above the normal levels of human maximum, we he finally made aware of the all too present signs of danger.

Lykan paused, observing his surroundings. Dense fog grew from the ground. This was not too much of a surprise, given the location and the relative humidity of the area. The fog generally came from areas that were near bodies of water. This was good, or so Lykan originally thought, as it meant he was drawing near the source of water he had spotted from the top of the mountain.

But this fog was different. Looking at it, he could see specks of energy mixed among the floating vaporous clouds. While some fog might have been natural to view, the denseness of this cloud was too much to be considered normal. This realization caused the hairs on the back of Lykan’s neck to stand up.

Lykan readied the glowing blue-tipped spear in his hands as a weapon. He was in the wrong location to wield the spear to its full effects. He was in the middle of a loosely packed forest. While there was a lot of room to thrust his spear forward, the Ability to wield and slice with the spear in wide sweeping arcs was denied to him. Yet his mind was already adjusting as knowledge from the Gods filled his mind on how to wield the spear expertly even in such tightly packed conditions.

Just as he forced his mind to slow down for a second, the calm composure of the various martial instructors who had come before and died in the lands now filled his mind. Each one focused on the art of calming the mind before a battle. So his mind was calm when he heard the first snap.

Rustle.

Tiny legs clawing and scraping on the trees. With shock, parts of the fog began to evaporate as his hunters began to charge forward. Spiders, dozens of them began to surge forward in a wave of legs and mandibles.

Yet Lykan was ready. He looked to see that the fog had been made to not only conceal the spider’s approach but the webs they would use to trap him if he had but traveled a few more steps forward. As it was, Lykan didn’t dare move. His feet and body were free of the webbing for now, but he still needed to keep his mobility if he was to survive this at all.

Grumble.

His stomach moaned with displeasure as it reminded him that he was still hungry and thirsty. Fortunately, this was perfect for Lykan as he always preferred to practice on an empty stomach anyways. Reinvigorated by that thought, he thrust forward, his spear tip going deep into the cranium of the charging beast. The skull, or what was the equivalent of a brain sac for a spider, was surprisingly resilient, at least as far as insects go. Still, his spear made quick work of the creature. The glowing blue blade seemed to come to life with the energy from the kill as it silently tore its way free of the head of one and then lunged itself into the head of the next.

Thwick, thwick, thwick.

With three quick thrusts, three more spiders found their ends.

Lykan adjusted his feet, moving his left foot back, as he lunged upward, striking at the spiders that dared to approach from above. His heightened senses and his increased sensitivity to energy made the spiders seem to glow an unnatural red color in the darkness of the forest.

Thwick, thud. Thwick, thud.

Two more spiders fell after being sliced through their heads before their lifeless bodies fell to the forest floor.

Splashing sounds could be heard as the beasts fell from the trees and shattered on the ground.

More and more spiders came. Until finally, there was a lull.

Lykan panted, though he wasn’t out of breath. Well, he was, but he wasn’t exhausted as he would have expected from such an attack. Instead, he felt rather calm. He counted no less than a dozen spider corpses, possibly two dozen by the looks of things. He had lost count somewhere into it and just kept thrusting his spear forward in quick, precise strikes.

A loud sound echoed through the forest.

Chitter.

A dozen or so spiders seemed to stop and start making a weird sound that was at once unnerving and seemed to resemble at least a basic form of communication.

Lykan’s mind went wild with the possibilities of what the sounds meant.

Thud, rumble. Thud, rumble.

A large beast moved forward with smooth and powerful strides. The beast in question was large and powerful enough to force its massive frame through the tightly compacted trees. As it did, strings of webbing snapped from overhead and underneath. It was at this moment that Lykan realized just how powerful the spiders truly were.

The beast charged forward until it was a few dozen meters away. If Lykan charged forward at full speed, he knew he could be upon the beast within seven quick strides. Yet such movements could likely be covered by the monster before him with but two quick shuffles. This was the size difference between the two individuals.

Lykan locked eyes with the massive beast. Or at least tried to. For while he only had the two, the beast before him had dozens of large black eyes that seemed to glow and shine in the darkness.

The monster let out an ear-piercing sound that was sharp and grating to Lykan’s enhanced senses. Worse, he could see that it was densely infused with energy.

For Lykan, the wave of energy felt like a warm breeze on a chilly night. The energy of the sound blast filled him, causing his muscles that were near collapse to feel refreshed. His nagging pains of hunger were now gone as he felt the fog of confusion that had been slowly settling on his mind lift away. In a word, he felt quenched both physically and mentally from the free energy.

The same could not be said for the other spiders, who up until a second ago had tried to encircle Lykan to cut off his escape. The various spiders that had been gathered around all dropped into a mass of nervously twitching balls.

“Monster!” the beast yelled in a monstrous feminine voice. It was clear from the context that this was likely the matriarch of this hive of spiders.

While he had heard of psychic spiders, he had not imagined having seen one.

Looking at the creature before him, that is exactly what this monster was. Or rather what she had to be.

“DIE!!!” the Spider Queen shrieked out. This shriek like the last was infused with highly concentrated beams of bright purple energy.

The energy surged forward into Lykan and then disappeared. Well, disappeared is likely not the correct term. Lykan realized that disappear is likely what would have happened before his Magical Ability evolved. Back when it was just Magical Immunity. Now it was Energy Absorption, an Ability that was maxed out. Now he could feel the particles of energy fill his body, fuse with his tired muscles, and provide a form of nourishment that his body so badly needed.

His Energy Sense allowed him to see the make-up of the different forms of energy that were being used. It was odd and something that Lykan knew he must work on.

Panting.

The beast before him was panting. It took a second for his mind to register the effect, but the beast clearly was exhausted. It had used two high-powered attacks back to back. The first one was so powerful that it caused all of her subordinates to drop lifelessly to the ground. Though it was clear that the spiders in question were just knocked out, as the energy of their bodies was still bright if a bit subdued.

“Die!” the Spider Queen yelled out again. This time, she was not able to fill the power word with nearly as much energy as she had used earlier.

This time like the others, the energy shot forward and filled Lykan’s body with vital energy.

Seeing that Lykan still stood, the Spider Queen became enraged.

“GRRR!” she shouted as she began charging forward. Though she was clearly tired. Her once steady even strides were now awkward and cumbersome. She wobbled left, then right. Then finally straightened her charge. She was so large that she didn’t need to be accurate. All she had to do was make sure she was able to cover the fleeing boy.

To her surprise, the boy didn’t flee as she had expected. Her addled mind tried to comprehend what was happening. She saw the spear the boy wielded. Against her underlings, such a weapon was fierce and deadly. Yet this was but a small child. She could smell that the boy was underage and had not yet reached puberty. Realizing this, she figured the boy was held still in fear. Resolved by this, she swung a leg forward to knock the spear aside. Using one appendage even while charging was an easy task for a spider of her caliber.

Thwunk! Shink!

The spear in the boy’s hands moved quickly. The leg that the Spider Queen had sent to strike away the little spear was not responding. Worse, the boy had moved the spear back into its original position, in a path that would pierce the spider head-on. Seeing this, the Queen reacted on instinct. Throwing her body up so that her head might extend over the tip of the spear and thus avoid being pierced. While her head was far stronger and more durable than the skull of her underlings, being hit in the head still hurt. To avoid any real damage, she instead chose to expose her vulnerable underside in an attempt to catch the spear wielder off guard and hopefully force the blade to be pushed under her body entirely.

It was a desperate gamble and one that had served her well in the past. Only at this point did a few things finally set into her mind. The first was pain. She couldn’t identify where the pain was coming from at first. Everything was happening so quickly around her. But after a few seconds of notice, she saw with horror a spider leg falling to the ground. Only after a second did it register that the pain she was now feeling and the falling appendage were related.

Second, she felt a sudden thrust of pain in her abdomen. She had managed to raise her head up above the spear, but her attempt to jump up and over the pointy weapon was fruitless. She had impaled herself on the pointy stick. Worse, her movement had been all but halted. Her eyes scanned below and showed that the pointy stick now rested on the ground forcing her body to hang in the air for a second.

Thwick, thwack.

With two quick movements, Lykan first lifted up the beast then managed to dislodge the spear by first slicing a path free by pushing the tip away. Then with an equally quick motion managed to slice the Queen in half by slicing a second strike right through where his first strike landed.

A giant spider head with three and a half legs fell twitching in front of Lykan. While the second half sprayed forth black and green ooze right on Lykan’s clothes. These were the same pristine white clothes that up until a day ago were clean and pure like his future. Now they were covered in dirt, dragon’s blood, and spider intestines. Shaking his head Lykan looked to the fallen beast watching the energies slowly fade away from her bisected corpse.

Realizing there were still more, Lykan made quick work going through the now fully visible webbings. Cutting away others that were unable to be moved through freely and sliced open the still unconscious spiders that managed to survive both his and the Spider Queen’s initial onslaughts.

As soon as he was finished, he felt a wave of energy fill his body. Letting him know that the deaths he had made to the Gods were accepted, and they had provided him his portion of the energy acquired.

With the immediate threat taken care of, Lykan proceeded to do what he originally came here to do, namely drink water.

The water was horrid and stale, yet it was wet. Almost instantly, Lykan swore he could feel his Regeneration Skill getting to work, or maybe this was just the overreaction of his imagination. Either way, he sat and waited.

Finally, after a few minutes of nothing bad happening, Lykan relaxed slightly.

Seeing that there was finally a source of water that seemed to be moving, if only slightly, he decided to take advantage of the situation and take a bath.

He bathed, trying to scrape off the now layers of dried dirt and grime in water that was at best slightly less disgusting than what he was trying to remove.

He felt clean while submerged, but as his body emerged from the water, he could almost imagine a thin coat of slime that wrapped around him. Still, he was clean, or at least cleaner than he had been before he entered, which was all he could truly hope for.

Now that he had drunk and bathed, he felt the onset of exhaustion kicking in. He had managed to somehow keep moving throughout the night, telling himself that he needed to be far away from the active volcano before he could rest. Then he held onto the need to drink and bathe. Now that he had accomplished both goals, he felt a wave of exhaustion fill him as he found a tree to offer shade and rest under.